The Lie That Microsoft Doesn't Allow PC Manufacturers To Ship Recovery Disks

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Laptop Manufactures Blaim Microsoft For Their Own "Cost Saving" Choices

It is profitable for them to spread the lie that Microsoft prohibits them from shipping media with your new machine

Subjects > Computers > Hardware > New Pc Missing Recovery Disks

Beware of a new lie being passed on to consumers by PC and Laptop manufactures such as Sony.

The lie is this: Microsoft prohibits them from shipping any disks with their new computers.

This is not true. They are unfairly blaiming Microsoft for their own penny pinching...

Here is the reality:

Microsoft has decided to stop allowing PC manufacturers to ship copies of Micosoft Operating System disks with new machines. This is to try and stop the unbundling of disks and selling of copies of their programs on the grey market separate from the hardware they were licensed with.
Microsoft allows manufactures to choose either of the following:

They can choose to ship recovery disks that are locked so that they only run on that model of machine.
They can include a "restore partition" on the hard drive that contains all the operating system software.

So when you find a brand new machine that does not include a $2 set of disks, you can know this: The manufacturer hopes that you'll have the machine for more than a month before you realize that these disks are missing. By that time, you are probably in the middle of an emergency, and you might not be able to recover the information from the "recovery partition". At that point, they will say your only option is to spend $40 or more to order the recovery disks. They will charge you extra for these disks that could have been included with your machine in the first place.

Recovery Disk Problems

System Recovery CD Problems Discussion
Problems With Recovery CD And Trying To Change Operating System - Problems with drivers not easily found on recovery CD and trying to change operating system on a Sony Vaio Laptop
HP CUSTOMERS FURIOUS OVER MISSING XP RECOVERY DISKS - Hewlett-Packard scrapped recovery disks for its latest range of Pavilion PCs, but didn't anticipate the furious customer response. The result: HP was forced to retreat. The company began sending out standard backup CDs to customers, but only to those who complained. What prompted the customer outrage was HP's decision to favor installation of Windows XP recovery files on a partition on the hard drive, instead of the backup CDs.
Another comment on lack of restore disks with sony computers
Why doesn't Sony ship recovery disks
Compaq Presario S5000NX Desktop PC (2.50-GHz Celeron, 128 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, CD-RW Drive) - The machine does not ship with recovery disks..so I burnt my own following the instructions (6 disks) which took about 45 minutes.
Problems getting the correct recovery CDs from sony
Problems caused by unreadable recovery CDs
Problems with Sony Vaio PCG-Z1VAP1 Recovery discs Sony Vaio PCG-Z1VAP1 requires the user to make 10 recovery CDs

Links to other sites

http://linux.highsphere.net/howtos/z1vap.php - How to for linux, and recovery disks nightmare
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,101787,00.asp In search of missing laptop drivers - Trying to obtain a system recovery CD for a second-hand notebook PC can be difficult.
[Users find Microsoft's 'medialess' anti-piracy play hard to swallow] from The Gripe Line by Ed Foster.
[Problems with Sony TR2A Recovery Wizard] - User was never able to make recovery disks using the supplied Sony utility. Titled Installing Windows XP Professional on the Sony Vaio TR2A Laptop by Phil Wherry
[Backing up your desktop and laptop]
[Are Recovery Disks All The Same?]

Some searches you might try to find more information

sony missing "recovery disks"
sony missing "recovery CDs"
no "recovery cds"

Problems with Vaio Recovery Wizard

The Sony Vaio Recovery Wizard (probably named for the recovery that you'll need after the frustrations this program causes) seems to have a big problem if you insert the blank disks before it is ready for them! I ruined a whole stack of disks and wasted hours before figuring this out. Sony claims it is very rare to have problems making the recovery disks, but they also admit that most people dont even try to make the recovery disks at first. Notably absent from the package is any kind of warning "Don't use this PC for anything or install any programs before first making a set of recovery disks using the VAIO Recovery Wizard." By placing everything you need to restore your PC on the hard drive itself, the information is extremely vulnerable to viruses, and human error.

Tips for making recovery disks with the Vaio Recovery Wizard

Access the touchpoint utility to shut of tapping (dont risk an accidental mouseclick from tapping the touchpad)
When it says "Recovery Media Kit - Completed creating Recovery Disc. Label 'Recovery disk 6 of 8' on the disk", remove the disk just finished, but do not stick a new disk in the drive yet.
Click next
Then insert the next CD when you get the prompt "Recovery disc 5 of 8 Insert a blank CD-R and click Next."
After inserting a blank CD, wait at least 10 seconds for the CD light to stop flashing, and the CD to spin up.
Then click the next button.